Hat Yai to Songkhla by Minivan

If you are in Hat Yai with time to spare and want to see something more leisurely than a (relatively) touristy border town, why not head over to Songkhla (สงขลา), the capital of Songkhla Province?

You may have searched the internet to find out how to make a day trip to Songkhla. And you may have found out that there are several ways to get there and back by public transport.

Well, let me tell you how you can get there from my own experience.

Why visit the Middle East and North Africa?

Hospitality.

Eid Al-Adha is less than a week away and it brings back sweet memories of my travels in Tunisia two years ago.

It was late September 2015, only six months after the terror attack on the Bardo Museum and three months after Sousse. And there I was in Sousse, on the day of the Feast of the Sacrifice.

I went to the medina in the morning of Eid, hoping to see a religious ceremony that might be held in the Grand Mosque. But when I arrived at the mosque, there was nothing - no celebration, no ceremony. It was eerily quiet. There was barely a soul in the square in front of the mosque.

Hat Yai to Bangkok Train

Seater or Sleeper?

Travelling by train from Singapore to Bangkok is one of those epic journeys that I’ve always wanted to take. Thankfully, I’ve done it once in Dec 2015 when I took the train from Johor Bahru (it still counts!) all the way to Bangkok.

I did it again in June 2017, although by bus from Singapore to Hat Yai, and by train from Hat Yai to Bangkok.

I arrived in Hat Yai on a Thursday morning and went straight to the train station to buy 2nd class overnight sleeper tickets (there were 3 of us), as I had planned to continue my journey to Bangkok on Friday evening. Well, as you have guessed, the 2nd class overnight sleepers (train nos. 32 & 38) were sold out.